"I could fall into the role-playing that some people seem to want and say, 'YES! I am so sorry. I was bad. I am good now! I promise.' But I don't believe in that story of redemption, a good-prevailing-over-evil story. It's one I'm just not in ... I'm not going to apologize for being me so you can get your triumphant ending. I don't believe the world operates in absolutes, in black and white and short and tall — I like living in the gray, in the medium." —in Lenny Letter

"When I first started having children, people were like, 'Well, what are you going to tell them about [your upbringing]?' And there was always a connotation and insinuation of, 'You should be ashamed.' But that's crazy. [My daughters] are going to know I'm not some holier-than-thou person who just doesn't want them to live. I just want to guide them in the best way possible." —to PEOPLE

"I wouldn't call things regrets, per se. I can't turn back time. But if I could, I would have listened more to my mother and gone back home to N.Y.C. earlier in life and chosen my friends more wisely." —to Vanity Fair

"[My wild days] aren't really a big deal. Everyone thinks, 'Oh my God, what are you going to tell Lorenzo?' I was 21 years old and I did what everybody else did, but it was just on camera. [I’ll tell him], 'Learn from my mistakes and once you go through them, you're going to know how to deal with them. This is what happens when you’re 21. You’re going to go through this. Just be careful.' " —to PEOPLE

"[My struggles are] pretty much in the past. Hopefully, it'll never be anything my kids have to be a part of. I wish I hadn't gone through that, but I did. I've been really open about what I’ve gone through in general, so if they ask me about it, I'll be open with them, too. I don’t think there’s any reason to hide it. It's nothing I'm ashamed of. But just like with various people my own age, I'm not just going to go out of my way to talk about it with my kids."—to PEOPLE

"My mentality was, 'Work hard, play hard.' It was hard to listen to the word 'no.' I wanted to make my own rules. I thought that if I was adult enough to get there, then I could party like an adult. And obviously, I couldn’t." —to PEOPLE